Conventional computer devices typically have the ability to identify a presence of available WiFi™ access points. For example, according to current technology, to learn of one or more access points in a region, a computer device can listen for so-called beacons from wireless access points indicating their identities (a.k.a., SSIDs).
In addition to or as an alternative to monitoring beacons, a communication device can be configured to transmit a wireless query signal (e.g., a probe request) in a region. In response to the wireless query signal, any of one or more active WiFi™ network access points in the region will respond with information indicating their identities (a.k.a., SSIDs). In certain instances, a respective SSID is a human-readable network name assigned to a respective network. Accordingly, via the response information from the access points, the operator of a computer, or the computer itself can be configured to identify which, if any, WiFi™ networks are available for use in the region.
Subsequent to establishing a wireless communication link with a first wireless access point and communicating through the first wireless access point to access a remote network such as the Internet, assume that the respective user roams outside a coverage region provided by the first wireless network into a wireless coverage provided by a second wireless access point. In such an instance, the communication system initiates a handoff of the wireless communication link between the corresponding mobile computer device and the first wireless access point in favor of establishing a new wireless communication link between the mobile computer device and the second wireless access point.